Elizabeth ‘Beth’ DiPrima: 2025 candidate for Mount Prospect village board

Bio

Office sought: Mount Prospect village board (Vote for 3)

City: Mount Prospect

Age: 59

Occupation: Retired teacher

Previous offices held: None

What is the most serious issue your community will face in the coming years and how should the village board respond to it?

A serious issue that the village will face is addressing the problems that go along with development and annexation. A number of new businesses have opened in the past few years. In addition, we have a significant number of new residents in apartments and condominiums. The board should coordinate with the community development staff and the village manager to investigate opportunities to partner with new and existing businesses and residents to meet their needs.

Some of these needs may involve parking issues, increasing rents, and high buildout costs. Development and annexation go hand in hand with infrastructure needs. We need to make sure that safety resources are still adequate in our “expanded” village including equipment and personnel.

How would you describe the state of your community's finances? What should be the top priorities for spending during the next few years? Are there areas of spending that need to be curtailed?

The finances of the village are strong. Fiscal responsibility has always been a priority in the village, and it should continue to be at the forefront of all decisions in the future.

The top priorities for spending should be things involving public safety and maintenance/repair of infrastructure. The next most important priorities should include projects than would make the day-to-day experience of living and traveling around Mount Prospect better. Areas of spending that are “wants” and not “needs” should be deprioritized.

What do you see as the most important infrastructure project the community must address? Why and how should it be paid for? Conversely, during these uncertain economic times, what project(s) can be put on the back burner?

The finances of the village are strong. Fiscal responsibility has always been a priority in the village, and it should continue to be at the forefront of all decisions in the future. The top priorities for spending should be things involving public safety and maintenance/repair of infrastructure.

The next most important priorities should include projects than would make the day-to-day experience of living and traveling around Mount Prospect better. Areas of spending that are “wants” and not “needs” should be deprioritized.

Describe your experience working in a group setting to determine policy. What is your style in such a setting to reach an agreement and manage local government? Explain how you think that will be effective in producing effective actions and decisions with your village board.

As a teacher I worked regularly with the other chemistry teachers to write objectives and design curricula to support these objectives.

My style is to seek input from all members of the team to develop goals. Once the goals are developed, the tasks required to achieve these goals are split among the team members according to their strengths.

I also spent several years on the Fremd High School staff development committee where we had to take the school goals and decide when and how to best present these to the staff throughout the course of a school year. This involved prioritizing certain goals over others and determining which issues required more time and which were less important.

As a village trustee, I would get to know the different strengths of the other board members, and use these strengths and the resources of the village staff to divide complicated tasks into more manageable pieces.

What makes you the best candidate for the job?

As a former science teacher, I offer a special skill set that would be valuable to the village board. I am a problem solver and am data driven. I excel at looking at all aspects of an issue and finding a solution. I have a very strong work ethic and have the time to be a full-time trustee.

I am retired and can make the position of trustee my main focus. I will be able to devote significant time to researching topics. I also have developed excellent communication skills throughout the course of my career. I have worked successfully with administrators, colleagues, parents, and students.

The most important part of my job was being able to clearly explain complex subject matter to all types of students. I will be able to explain the results of my research on village issues at a basic level to the board and the public. This would make me an asset to the village board and would complement the strengths and experiences of the current board.

What’s one good idea you have to better the community that no one is talking about yet?

I would like to see the village set up a municipal court. This idea is not unique to me, but I don’t hear it being widely discussed. Currently, if a person is ticketed for parking or a moving violation, the ticket has to go through the Cook County court system.

This means that the village of Mount Prospect has to allocate police resources to go to court and that Cook County gets the vast majority of the money from the ticket. With a finite number of human resources, there is little incentive to aggressively pursue these “minor” violations.

If we had a court dedicated to the village, then the village would be able to get most of the revenue from the tickets and this could improve enforcement and help alleviate parking issues and safety concerns. If elected, I plan to work with trustees and the village manager to investigate what would need to go in to having a local based court as opposed to relying on the Cook County courts for everything.